UPWARD

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does upward mean? 

• UPWARD (adjective)
  The adjective UPWARD has 2 senses:

1. directed up

2. extending or moving toward a higher place

  Familiarity information: UPWARD used as an adjective is rare.

• UPWARD (adverb)
  The adverb UPWARD has 2 senses:

1. spatially or metaphorically from a lower to a higher position

2. to a later time

  Familiarity information: UPWARD used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UPWARD (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Directed up

Context example:

an upward stroke of the pen

Similar:

up (being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extending or moving toward a higher place

Synonyms:

up; upward

Context example:

a general upward movement of fish

Similar:

ascending (moving or going or growing upward)

• UPWARD (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spatially or metaphorically from a lower to a higher position

Synonyms:

up; upward; upwardly; upwards

Context example:

upwardly mobile

Antonym:

downward (spatially or metaphorically from a higher to a lower level or position)

Sense 2

Meaning:

To a later time

Synonyms:

up; upward; upwards

Context example:

from childhood upward

 Context examples 

Until I die, my dearest sister, I shall see you always before me, pointing upward!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Weedon Scott bent over, removed the arm and turned the man's face upward.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The expression of her eyes, the hard upward stare, the set of the lips, was new to me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All the painful, thousand years' gains of man in his upward climb through creation were lost.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Once more the clenched fists went upward and he groaned.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The findings align with the idea that, hundreds of millions (up to a billion) years ago, materials beneath Ceres' surface pushed upward toward the exterior, creating fractures in the crust.

(Dawn Explores Ceres' Interior Evolution, NASA)

I clutched Holmes’s arm, and pointed upward.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His chin was cocked upward and his eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the ceiling.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then he sat down, pointed his nose upward, and howled.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

This upward current brought the nitrates nearer to the surface, where phytoplankton, which also need sunlight, tend to live.

(Scientists report skyrocketing phyotplankton population in aftermath of Kīlauea eruption, Wikinews)